The Problem Patient
by Feathered-Avenger
Summary: Hermione had a really rough night at St. Mungos.


_"Healer Granger, please report to level four." _

Hermione looked longingly through the glass doors, "I hate night shift." She muttered.

She debated on whether or not to just sneak out anyway but the call came again.

_"Healers Abbot, Granger, and Miles are needed in room thirteen on level four. All other Healers are requested to report to their stations immediately."_

Her weariness vanished in an instant and she looked back across the lobby and saw Healers pelting in all different directions.

That wasn't a good sign.

She took off at a dead run, stopping only when she ran into a fellow Healer on the fourth floor. The other Healer held a clipboard tightly in her white knuckled hands and paced anxiously in front of room thirteen.

"What's happening?" Hermione demanded, drawing her wand and ready to put someone down.

"Oh thank Merlin! I was afraid you had left already!" the other woman cried over the chaos around them.

"What's wrong, is someone hurt?" Hermione asked, going into Healer mode.

"We have a fighter, he refuses to take treatment and his room mate was goaded into a rage and tried to bust the door down to attack a Healer. He was recommended here after he got the bad end of a spell and wasn't acting right. He changes moods in the blink of an eye."

Hermione took the chart and scanned down it, "He came here unconscious? What are his other symptoms… _Extreme sexiness, causes speechlessness, lust, and drooling?_" Hermione crinkled her nose and flicked the page back, "Who is…? _Name: Comin En Bendover… _OKAY WHO WROTE THIS?"

"Self filled patient form." The woman said in a small voice as two other Healers joined them.

"Take this." Hermione said thrusting the chart at them as she marched towards the door. Before she pulled it open she faced the other three with her finger pointed at the one clutching the chart. "_This _is the reason why _we_ as medical _professionals _question the patient to get a feel of their physical and mental needs before we chuck them in a room with someone else and hazard other people!" She said in one breath.

"Sorry."

"Not yet you're not. You had better pray that Healer isn't injured or **I** will be responsible and then I will have **your** medical career in pieces!" Hermione snarled, snatching the chart back and elbowing her way into the room. Her eyes landed on the guy in the first bed who immediately leaped to his feet like he was going to charge her. "GET BACK IN YOUR BED!"

She kicked the door shut behind her and the guy gulped as she rounded on him.

"How dare you attack anyone on my floor?" He fell back onto his bed and scooted as far away as was physically possible. She took several very, very deep calming breaths. "Thought you would be a smartass and put 'Comin En Bendover' as your name? Fancy wasting my time by having to come up here, restrain your violent self by strapping you down to your bed and then administering a potion to knock you out for a century huh? Think your funny do you?"

The guy shook his head madly and pointed towards the other side of the room beyond his curtain.

Hermione's eyes narrowed into slits as she looked down at her chart, read the bed number and then realized it didn't match the guy's bed she had just screamed at.

"Stupify." She said, aiming her wand at him and knocking him out. She stormed across the room and tore the curtains away that separated the two beds to see her problem patient.

"Come to give me a sponge bath?" Draco Malfoy said slyly.

Her night just kept getting better and better.

"Oh but it would be _you_." Hermione said venomously, bristling at the smirk he shot her.

"Who else could look this good?"

She hadn't set eyes on him in four years and judging by the past thirty seconds he hadn't changed much.

He was reclined on his hands and watching her with slightly unfocused eyes. Spell damage, she remembered, trying to force down her anger. There was a slim chance he wasn't in his right mind. She stuffed her wand back into her pocket with irritation.

"What are you doing still in civilian clothes? You're a patient here; you'll accept treatment and you'll change into patient robes."

"Hmm. No."

Hermione stiffened in the act of fixing his medical chart.

"What was that?"

"I said _no_." Draco sneered. "Doesn't anyone around here besides me have the balls to tell you no?" he said aggressively.

Hermione puffed herself up and glared daggers down at him, "This is my floor, _Mr. _Malfoy. I'm Head Healer. No one here tells _me_ no, and you are not going to be any different."

Draco seemed to consider this for a moment then went teasing again.

"I'll meet you half way. You undress me and I'll wear your bloody robe."

"You're perfectly capable of dressing yourself." Hermione snapped.

"You don't know that. You have absolutely no idea of what condition I'm in." he rebutted.

"Because some arrogant moron filled his own chart with this rubbish!"

"You're acting very unprofessional." He pointed out. "No full body examination or anything. I think I'll report you."

Hermione's face darkened considerably.

"Mr. Malfoy," she said through gritted teeth, "I have a job to do and you're making it extremely difficult. While you're changing into your robe, you will tell me what you did to end up in here."

Draco slipped off the bed and stood proudly at his height of six foot three. He was broader in the shoulders and chest then Hermione recalled. He had a slight sway in his stance and there was still the clouded look in his eyes that hinted there was something wrong.

"I don't think so _Healer _Granger."

"Fine." She drew her wand, ready to knock him out when she suddenly found herself at wand point also. Her eyes widened and she backed away swiftly. "How did you get a wand?"

"Let me out." Draco said evenly, nodding to the door.

"You have spell damage you can't just walk-"

"I am NOT damaged!" He yelled, suddenly enraged.

She tried to disarm him but he blocked her spell with a flick of his wand. She had to dive away to avoid getting hit with the rebound and cast a curse while she was down.

In seconds the room was in ruins while curses and hexes went soaring everywhere, missing their intended marks and blasting at furniture and the walls instead.

"THIS IS WHY _MENTAL_ PATIENTS ARE NOT ALLOWED WANDS!" Hermione yelled furiously, blocking a rapid succession of curses she couldn't identify and dodging the ones she couldn't.

"I WILL HAVE YOUR CAREER IN RUINS GRANGER! HOW DARE SOMEONE LIKE YOU TALK DOWN TO SOMEONE LIKE ME!" His face was contorted with uncontrolled fury as he closed the distance between them, making it harder and harder to block and dodge each attack.

"LET ME HELP-!"

"I DON'T NEED YOUR HELP!"

"I CAN _HELP_ YOU!"

"I WILL KILL YOU!"

She backed into the door and ducked just in time as a curse hit it and blasted it off its hinges. The duel spilled out into the corridor where a sudden explosion shook the floor. Debris went flying and dust rolled making everything hard to see.

She coughed, "Malfoy! What have you done you bast-!"

Hermione's eyes opened wide as several curses zoomed over her shoulder and towards the room just as a single curse was fired at her. There was a metallic taste to the air as the curses collided and crackled with energy. A blinding flash of hot light issued and she was suddenly falling-

In her bed she bolted upright and scanned her surroundings with confusion. After several long seconds she looked to her side at her peaceful husband and poked him awake.

"I had that dream again." she hissed at him.

"Unless you're going to act out the sponge bath part... then please refrain from notifying me about every "Evil Malfoy" dream you have." He murmured with his eyes still closed.

"I can't help it- it's so strange. It happens over and over the exact same way…" Hermione mused, already getting drowsy as she sank back into the pillows. "Strange…"

Draco bit his lip, again he briefly wondered if he should tell her that she was recalling what had truly happened that day in her dreams...

_He felt the rage and confusion that had him in its clutches earlier ebb away and he shook his head. His vision sharpened and suddenly he could see clearly again even though everything was hazy with dust._

_Free of the inhibiting curse he climbed to his feet and surveyed the destruction around him. He had just single handedly caused a corridor on the fourth floor to be in severe need of a redecorating overhaul. Seven Healers were knocked out cold. One had a massive hemorrhage to the side of his head and was bleeding out. He was supposed to be keeping a low profile; ending up in the mental ward and blowing it up was not the best way to go about it._

_ "Woopsie." He muttered as the dust began to settle._

_Thinking only to cover himself, he obliviated the seven Healers and dropped the wand responsible. It wasn't his. The last thing he had remembered before waking up in the mental ward was successfully hunting down his quarry in Romania. He had taken the bloke's wand as a trophy. Draco still had his own that was free of any traces of dark magic…_

_Hermione stirred and sat up with a bemused expression. She rubbed her head and didn't notice Draco several feet away holding his own wand that he had aimed at her undefended back. He wasn't sure whether to strike or not. Should he go or should he stay? If anyone could figure him out it would be the inquisitive Know-It-All that stuck her freckled nose in everything. _

_So long as she didn't find out, she could live, he decided._

_ "Hannah?" She coughed, reaching out to prod a fellow Healer. "What happened?" The other Healer shifted slightly and sat up with a grimace and a dazed expression._

_She felt another presence at her side and looked up into startlingly familiar grey eyes. _

_ "You alright? That mental bloke nearly got you. You're lucky I happened to be close by…"_

_Hermione watched him stow his wand away with an awed look. _

_ "Malfoy?" She said with disbelief, exchanging dumbfounded glances with the other Healer._

_Draco's eyebrows raised slightly in concern, "You do remember don't you? He had you cornered in his room, he somehow smuggled a wand in. I heard screaming and had to break the door down."_

_ "You- saved me?" _

_He faltered for a moment but then his lips turned upward in a breathtaking smile, "Well yes Granger, I could hardly allow these Healers to waste time to go about it the 'professional' way." He paused and his eyes danced with mischief "I am correct in assuming that you're still a_ Granger_ right?"_

_She blushed and nodded slightly, taking in his civilian attire._

_ "Were you visiting someone here?" She asked as he pulled her off the ground and then did the same to Healer Abbot. _

_ "Giving an injured friend my well wishes," Draco replied with a drawl "but I suppose he hasn't arrived here yet." He made a mental note to call Blaise about that favor he owed him. A mild curse seemed like a good repayment to land his friend on the spell damage floor and as an excuse as to why Draco was there in the first place._

_The sound of alarms reached them and more Healers were converging onto the heavily damaged floor._

_ "What happened here?" _

_Hermione's shoulders slumped as the inevitable questioning and clean up started. She knew it was going to be a long night. She recounted as much as she could with Draco filling in the extensive gaps and giving a description of the guy. He said he hadn't gotten a good look at his face. An unclaimed wand was recovered on the floor that was tested and revealed to have been the cause of all the destruction. _

_But the person responsible was never found._

_She was forced to stay the night in the mental ward because of her and six healers and another patient's missing memories. There might have been furthering injuries or side effects that had yet to show._

_Hermione started slightly when the door to her room was opened just minuets after she had been shut in there. She pulled the hospital sheets up to her chin to hide her clothes as he slipped into the room and the door closed behind him._

_ "A Head Healer who refuses to follow the rules and change into her hospital patient attire." Draco said with false displeasure, having caught a glimpse of her wear. "Never figured you for a rule breaker."_

_ "I'm not a patient. I don't need to stay here." Hermione said with a small pout. She wondered why he was still sticking around after the intensive questioning was over. He was free to go._

_ "I know," He said, trailing his fingers across the edge of her bed as he approached. "I thought you would want to escape. How does…?" he glanced around for a clock and found one "… early breakfast with me sound? We could catch up. A lot seems to have happened since we saw each other." Draco said, eyeing the Head Healer badge in her hands._

_A faint rosy tint colored her cheeks. This was certainly not the same Draco Malfoy she remembered from school. _

_ "I… yeah alright." She stood and cleared her throat with chagrin, "Thanks for saving me Malfoy."_

_He smirked, "Please, call me Draco." He offered his arm which she took after a slight hesitation. "I didn't really think you needed saving, you were doing such a fantastic job yourself… if he hadn't gone for broke you would have had him…"_

Mental ward terrorist or hero?

Draco entertained himself with the thought of actually debating that.

No, he would take his secret to the grave. No way was he ever owning up to being in the mental ward even if his condition had been temporary. A _Malfoy _in the mental ward? Urgh, it was just wrong. And if he ever owned up to that then he would have to explain how he had gotten in there in the first place. And that was something he really didn't want to go into.

"Draco, what- what did you say you were working as when we met that day?" Hermione asked, propping herself up on her elbow and gazing down at him curiously.

"I was abroad, didn't exactly need to work to support myself did I?" He answered. No he didn't, he was filthy rich.

"Oh, yeah. And Blaise was a- he was working as a curse breaker?"

"Trying to. He realized it wasn't his thing when one backfired and he ended up in a coma at St. Mungo's for three weeks. You were on duty to care for him."

"Yeah…" She said thoughtfully "I just remembered that the first thing he said when he woke up was your name and a lot of colorful words."

Well that was unfortunate.

"He's a mental case." Draco said smoothly. "We can discuss his crazy antics in the morning.

She was silent for a long time.

"It's been two years since that guy attacked us in St. Mungo's and we still haven't been able to track him down at all. It just bothers the hell out of me. Like I'm missing something."

"Surely not the night shift?"

Hermione snorted, "Definitely not. The only good thing that shift did for me was meeting you again."

Draco concealed a smile.

If only she knew.

"It's a good thing Blaise landed himself in the hospital." He acquiesced.

"That's terrible." Hermione said, halfheartedly pushing at the arm wrapped around her waist.

Draco closed his eyes and felt himself begin to drift off.

_It was a good thing I fell into the headhunting profession and ended up getting cursed by that blundering idiot in Romania… _

It had ultimately led him to her.

_Funny how things happen. How ironic, the Headhunter and the Head Healer. Life taker and life giver. She's keeping me in business, _he mused, his eyes opening and wandering over to his closet where a small box lay with an undetectable extension charm on it and a ton of different wands inside it. His trophies.

_What she doesn't know won't kill her. _He smirked into her curly chestnut colored hair.

_Literally. _


End file.
